Just read a really interesting article on vendor relationships and suddenly I realized that my store has a horrible relationship with our vendors. I have seen recently how people are dealing with their vendors at other stores and came to the conclusion that we seriously need to revamp our vendor relationships to a trusting and profiting relationship. The general idea of the relationship between a store and their vendor is based on a mutual profitability. If the store profits, the vendor profits. This requires much investigation for a store owner. Taking a tour of the facilities of the vendor and seeing how their product is made, finding products that will meet the customer needs, negotiating a reasonable sway for product and product cost, and many other things. If the vendor's customers are complaining or sending out negative feedback, the store should stay on alert, for these are not good signs. Also our marketing collateral is not what it should be, and many vendors do offer some help with that. I believe that we failed to even negotiate a 'net 30' and we certainly missed out on a '2 or 3 percent 10 net 30'. So suddenly I am craving a new vendor for our products. The vendor that we use for pastries is very inconsistant and that should have been a red flag for the store owner a while ago. Yet, we still use them. I don't know. Maybe I am just blowing off some steam.